A little more than a week ago I received an invitation from Josh Solomon, Director of Sales for US Beverage Net, to visit their offices in downtown Syracuse.  Funny thing is I’ve walked by their building for the last 5 years and was finally able to get in and check it out.  The building was vacant for a number of years and they have been one of the new tenants, remodeling their floor to include a demo bar, conference rooms and a bunch of offices.  But I’m not here to talk about real estate, I’m here to talk about beer.

As a quick overview, US Beverage Net has a patented process for measuring the flow of beer through keg lines and relays the information into a web-based user interface.  The user interface allows managers, brewers and business executives to monitor real-time statistics about what brews are selling, track innovatory and beer temperature.   The video below is quick peek at how the system works:

The system allows managers to see how much beer is being sold with the information from the registers at the bar against the actual beer that flows through the beer lines.  Innovatory is tracked in real time and allows managers to know the status of kegs on tap.  Over time, information is collected so that larger bars and beer operations can produce reports to show trends in purchasing, beer choices and sales.  This is really precise measurement where most bars and brew pubs rely on simply lifting kegs and quick counts.

Now beer is an interesting asset for a bar.  While we (beer geeks) can really see the value in tracking the beer flow on a high end beer like Chemey, most people in the bar/restaurant service industry see beer as a low-cost, high profitability product.  This can easily lead them to ask “why should I care?” – I have to say, when I first learned of US Beverage Net I asked myself the same thing.

So what makes this valuable to customers?  After talking with Josh, I’ve learned that they’ve found a few hot-spots for customers and have an enticing opportunity for future growth.  First, restaurants with multiple locations that see a large volume of beer flow through their lines can quickly realize the value of tracking “beer loss” (includes everything from people who waste beer that is foaming by leaving the tap open to overly friendly staff that like to treat their friends).  It allows for accountability and in some cases, US Beverage Net was able to identify 20% loss of beer and, with some basic review of staff and practices, were able to get the losses down to 2%.

Now while it’s easy to see how hundreds lines with beer flowing inefficiently can lead to quick turn around on investment dollars, but how can this help a brew pub?  Empire Brewing Company is currently using the system and brewer Tim is able to accurately monitor inventory so he can plan out brew sessions, asses the effectiveness of recipes with sales information, and do all this from the comfort of his home.  The web-based user interface has created a situation where he can pick and chose the time he needs to spend in the bar so he doesn’t have to walk into the coolers picking up the kegs every night to monitor supply.

Finally, they’ve got some interesting prospects for the future.  US Beverage Net has recently signed on with a few distributors.  Now this is interesting because they can provide access to distributors to have a real-time view of inventory at bars and restaurants.  This can save them man hours, gas and increase efficiency of the beer distribution process.  There is also the possibility  for US Beverage Net to, as they build their client base, compile information for brewers and the beer industry to provide an immediate snapshot of consumer reaction to beer in the market.

Over all, the upside of this product is great.  It’s especially attractive given the current economic climate and everyone’s desire to stretch every penny.  This quote from Jake Wright of Quaker Steak and Lube says a lot:

“We have had a FULL return on our investment for the installation and a full year of fees from just ONE busy night, moving from a variance of 20% the week before we notified staff to just 3% the week after. The system worked from day one, the support from the Bevnet team was immediate when needed and most importantly the cost was amazingly low. No hassle, easy to use, low cost and immediate ROI.”

Syracuse is a great beer town and US Beverage Net is a great beer company using innovation to help modernize the industry we support.  Cheers.

UPDATE – Found this story online

We started the trip out with a stop at New Belgium Brewing Company (I wrote about this on A Good Beer Blog) and had ourselves a great time. I picked up a teeshirt and a ton of respect for this brewery. They’re doing all the right things over there and happen to be making beer in the process.

Friday night we headed over the mountains to Pug Ryan’s Brewery where I had Thai Mahi-mahi and tried a few of their brews. I enjoyed the Doppelbock, the Scottish Ale and the Pale Ale while I was there. All great brews.

Saturday we headed up to Vail where we hit the mountain hard and took full advantage of the 12in of fresh snow. It was awesome. Below is a picture from on top of the 7th bowl at Vail. The glades there were CRAZY!!!

After a full day of cutting up the slopes, we stopped by Backcoutry Brewery to pickup a case of bombers help us relax. We grabbed their IPA, the pils, the porter, the amber and the wheat beer they had. My favorite was the IPA. Really hoppy all the way through, nose, taste and punch.

Sunday we got up early and headed up to Copper Mountain. Though we didn’t have the fresh snow like we did on Saturday, we took a CAT ride and hiked up Tucker Mountain for some CRAZY fresh back country riding. It was AWESOME!!! I made a short video from on top of Tucker before we were about to drop down. (Beware of a little cursing)

We ended the trip into the mountains with a stop at Tommyknocker Brewery where we enjoyed a 5oz tasting of all the brews they had on tap. We also got a sampling of the anniversary brew they have which is an imperial version of their Maple Brown Ale. Good stuff.

I had a great trip. I got to ride more verticle feet in two days than in the past two years and I got to try a lot of amazing beer. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Poop for having me over, it’s always a lot of fun.

Cheers!